Thursday, January 7, 2021

Those Identified in The "Save America" Insurrection Thus Far



*Updated daily as they are identified and arrested ...

.... to now include retired U.S. Air Force Colonel, Larry Rendall-Brock, Jr. - admitting he's both a Trump supporter and that was him, wearing a combat helmet and a bulletproof vest, holding zip ties, on the Senate floor. 


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1. Jacob Anthony 
Chansley AKA Jake Angeli - self-proclaimed QAnon "Shaman" and regular Trump groupie at Trump Rallies, antagonizer at BLM rallies - self-confirmed Trump supporter.  He was arrested on 1/9/2020.










2. The Proud Boys - Nich Ochs - Hawaii - his Twitter selfie, posted yesterday, shows Nich, and and a yet unidentified friend inside the Capitol Building, self-identifying as a "Proud Boy Elder" from Hawaii - (you will recall that during the last debate, Trump told the DHS-labeled far-right group to "Stand back and stand by") - self-confirmed Trump supporter.







3) Tim Gionett/"Baked Alaska" - Online "Influencer" for Trump, identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "white nationalist," which he disputes - but he does self-confirm as a Trump supporter and Trump troll.








4) Richard "Bigo" Barrett - "Stop the Steal" Organizer and gun rights activist - identity confirmed by Arkansas state politicians and prior press interviews - self-confirmed Trump Supporter







5)  West Virginia State Delegate, Derrick Evans - confirmed Trump supporter.  Here, he can be seeing pushing his way into the Capitol building, just ahead of Richard Barrett (above). 






6)  Paul Davis, Frisco, TX, attorney for Goosehead Insurance (now fired) - confirmed Trump supporter. 








7)  Adam Johnson - Bradenton, FL - identified as the man carrying Nancy Pelosi's lectern and waving.  Interestingly, he's a stay-at-home father of five children, as his wife is a doctor.  He is a self-confirmed Trump supporter.  He was arrested 1/9/2020.






8)  Retired Airforce Lt. Colonel,  Larry Rendall-Brock, Jr. - Grapevine, TX - seen here breaching the Senate chamber, in full combat gear, holding zip ties (?)  - self-confirmed Trump supporter, who has admitted his identity to authorities  ...









Let the above picture sink in - a former U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel breached the Senate chamber, wearing a combat helmet and a bulletproof vest, holding zip ties - for God only knows what non-peaceful purpose!



9) Eric Munchel -
Nashville, TN - bartender - self-confirmed Trump supporter.





10)  Cleveland Grover Meredith, Jr. - 
Atlanta, Ga  - this is a picture of him at a prior event, not the capitol - however, he was present at the rally, identified by others as being present at the rally and a Trump and QAnon supporter, actually buying a billboard in Atlanta to effect).  He sent a text message stating he would "Put a bullet in her (Nancy Pelosi's) noggin"

He had been staying at the Holiday Inn in Washington and a camper, both of which contained several guns and rounds of ammo.







11)  Bradley Rukstales - Schaumburg, IL - CEO of Cogensia - now placed on leave of absence - Bradley has admitted being inside the capitol.  He is a self-confirmed Trump supporter and stated "This was the single worst decision of my life."









Gee, ya think? 


12)  Doug Jensen -  Des Moines, Iowa - self-confirmed Trump supporter, self-confirmed QAnon member (as you can see on his T-shirt). 





12)  Lonnie Coffman (pic not yet available) - Falkville, AL - among other charges, was found with 14 homemade Molotav cocktails in Mason jars in his car - self-confirmed Trump supporter. 

13)  Mark Leffingwell (pic not yet available) - Seattle, WA - among other charges, charged with assault of a police officer - self-confirmed Trump supporter. 

13)  Kevin Greeson - Athens, AL - one of four to die from a medical emergency during the riot - confirmed Trump supporter (as you can see from the second picture, which from his social media page.




 Isn't that nice?  Nothing says Merry Christmas like assault rifles!?!








13)  Aaron Mostofsky - Brooklyn, NY - son of NY judge, Schlomo Mostofsky, stated he was a spokesperson on his behalf - and confirmed both supported Trump. 








14)  Ashli Babbitt - San Diego, CA - the woman unfortunately shot and killed in the attack.









Her mother confirmed both her identity and that she was a Trump supporter.


It had been confirmed she was shot by law enforcement, but the reason for the shooting is unclear - there are unconfirmed reports of her attempting to climb a barricade or scaffolding and being told to stop (if true, not a reason to shoot to kill, IMO)?

Now, I'm not a Trump supporter (clearly) - and I know that none of this would have happened, had Trump ...

1) Denounced and condemned the violence and killing by white supremacist groups in Charlottesville. 
2) Not told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" during the debates.  
3) Openly denounced and condemned both white supremacy groups and QAnon as dysinformation and conspiracy propaganda.  
4)  Openly condemned the armed militia who descended upon the capitol building in Michigan, with intent to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, instead of criticizing and blaming Whitmer.   
5)  Not lauded Kyle Rittenhouse a hero. 
6) Taken the DHS and FBI warnings about fringe far-right group threats of violence seriously, last year, instead of completely ignoring them.  
7) Repeatedly incited this insurrection, called the "Save America Rally," claiming the election was "stolen" without any credible proof.  
8)  Condemned the idea of violence strongly, both during his speech at the "Save America"  immediately before the attack and after the attack had begun.

... and that's just to name a few.


*HOWEVER* - unless she was an active shooter and/or was somehow an immediate threat to loss of life, I will never support law enforcement, or anyone else, shooting anyone that is unarmed and not in self-defense - white, black, or purple, male or female, Republican or Democrat.

She was a 14-year veteran - and though she put herself in harm's way by unlawfully entering a federal government building and/or vandalizing it (over Trump's ego), if true she was unarmed and not an immediate threat to life - she did NOT deserve to die this way - she deserved to be arrested and tried - not shot and killed.



Nope, by the way - still don't see a single person of color or Muslim yet - which, of course, shoots all to hell your racist theories about people of color and Muslims being more prone to violence and terrorism than white Christians - sorry, Trumpers and white nationalists!

And you know dang well that if Ashli and the other rioters had been a group comprised of people of color, Muslim, Jewish, Hindi, Buddhist - or even just Democrats - you'd be applauding whoever shot Ashli as some kind of hero - like you did Kyle Rittenhouse!



We all knew it was a possibility that things would get ugly at the Trump rally yesterday, which Trump himself pushed for repeatedly on Twitter, citing a "stolen election."

In fact, 10 former defense secretaries wrote an open letter warning Trump not to even try to impose martial law as part of the rally, he would not have military support - four days ago - (click on this link).


So if we knew it was a strong possibility - and the military knew it was a strong possibility - then you know Capitol police and Capitol security did - so I'm not sure why local police/law enforcement was so lax (and did not provide internal backup security) until too late - but I have my suspicions, which I'll keep to myself, for now, because I don't have proof.


Regardless, thank you, Congress, for doing your job for a change - Bravo!


Thank you especially to those Trump-supporting Congress members who finally realized this wasn't a game anymore and how dangerous that pushing dysinformation and baseless conspiracy theory had become- after finding yourselves in danger, rather than just us, John Q. Public, yes - but nevertheless, stepped up when the time came to do the right thing.


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PS - Since this post was written, Officer Brian Sidenick has died.  Varying reports on whether he was injured or suffered a stroke or both :(

And I would like to clarify my above statement about most local/city police being pro-Trump.

I'm not going to retract that, because I still know it to be true - most (but not all) local/city police forces are pro-Trump.

In fact, the overall lax police response to this riot versus riots by people of color, in and of itself, could be construed as evidence of that. 

However, there were and are some wonderful police officers (we know several) - the kind who legitimately tried to do their job and stop it - it's just unfortunate they were not backed up by their brothers and sisters - who give a bad name to cops, when there are still many good ones out there. :(






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